Breona Taylor’s case

The Breona Taylor case is a tragic one, but it is not the case that will get a police officer charged with a crime under current law. It ought to be enough, but it is not. The drug war has led to the diminishing of constitutional rights over the past 50 years, especially the Fourth Amendment. Let me explain.

Facts are disputed, but here are the basics: Police go to the apartment of Breona Taylor, looking for evidence in a drug investigation. They have obtained a “no knock” search warrant. The reputed drug dealers lived 10 miles away but it was alleged they used Breona’s apartment as a drop-off point for drugs. The police claim about that is in dispute, as the postal inspector said that, upon request by a different agency, they had found that there were no packages of interest going in/out of the apartment. 

There tends to be more lying or exaggeration or puffing up, in drug cases than in any other kind of case. Drug cops can get tied up in “The end justifies the means” and think that the case is so important that a little lie is ok if it catches a drug dealer. I also note that the “no knock” provision of the search warrant gives cops more power than they need or deserve in many cases. It sort of boosts the adrenaline of the officers going in, which leads to cases like this. Breona’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, thought the apartment was being invaded by bad guys, and yelled several times “Who is it?”, but did not get an answer. The police claim that they repeatedly announced who they were, but only one witness out of 12 heard any such thing, and it was a single, “Police!” Walker legally had a firearm and fired one time, striking an officer in the leg. The police then opened fire, firing 20 shots, five of which struck Breona, killing her. 

Now, I’ve heard some justifiers want to drag Breona through the mud by claiming she knew what was going on in the alleged drug activity involving her apartment, but I don’t care. She did not deserve to be executed. 

I also don’t care much for “no knock” search warrants. They are usually based on the uncorroborated word of nefarious bad guys, or speculation (like “drug dealers are known to have guns”), instead of hard evidence. I recognize it can be difficult to “catch” drug dealers in the act, but so what? It’s a drug case. We really shouldn’t be killing people over a drug investigation. Had George Hooks (a Laurens County case gone wild) been black instead of white, it would have fit the BLM narrative with better facts.

The only thing that keeps these officers out of murder/manslaughter charges is that lone gunshot of Walker. Had it not hit the officer in the leg, I think the police hail of bullets would have been roughly the same. Once the boyfriend, Kenneth, fired a shot, the police can then rely on “self defense” (their court-gifted standard, not ours) and the grand jury, applying current law, will not indict. This grand jury really stretched to get “wanton indifference” as to neighbors in the area, as an appeasement to the families involved. Grand jurors can’t talk about their decision, but I can promise you they wanted to do more for Breona. And George Hooks. And Christopher Roupe. And Tamir Rice. And on and on. The pendulum of justice has swung too far in favor of law enforcement/protecting case vs. citizens/Fourth Amendment. I hope we make the changes needed, and maybe Breona will be the impetus for that change. 

The easiest change is to simply ban no-knock entries into people’s homes and businesses. That will do more to stop the cowboy attitude of drug investigators than anything. Another easy change would be to put all seized drug money into the county’s drug rehabilitation efforts instead of more hi-tech toys for drug cops. Harder changes would be to make police officers personally responsible for civil damages when they shoot the wrong people. Even tougher, make criminal law changes that let grand jurors hear “the whole truth;” that is, let them hear every relevant facet of the case, and if officers need to be indicted, let it rip. 

“Where the people fear the government, you have tyranny. Where the government fears the people, you have liberty.” (Often attributed to Thomas Jefferson, it was from John Basil Barnhill. Barnhill-Tichenor Debate on Socialism, As It Appeared in the National Rip-Saw (Saint Louis, Mo.: The National Rip-Saw Pub. Co., 1914), 34.)

I know I’ll get blowback on this from law enforcement and like-minded citizens who think I’m going soft on drugs. They will do the usual, “But Kelly, how about…?” Well, here’s your “but for!”  

But for the single gunshot from boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, 1) Breona Taylor would probably still be alive today. 2) But for the lousy execution of a “no-knock” or “announce and enter” search warrant, Breona would still be here. 3) But for a real investigative file, so the issuing judge had better facts, Breona would still be here. 4) But for Breona living in a better neighborhood, which would have triggered better police work, Breona would be alive today. 5) And while this is not always true in sloppy police work cases, but for Breona being black she would probably still be here today.

Kelly Burke, retired attorney, former district attorney and magistrate judge, writes about the law, rock ’n’ roll, and politics or anything that strikes him. These articles are not designed to give legal advice, but are designed to inform the public about how the law affects their daily lives. Contact Kelly at dakellyburke@gmail.com to comment on this article or suggest articles that you’d like to see, and visit his website at www.kellyrburke.com to view prior columns and contact Kelly.

HHJ News